Many moons ago, while listening to the writers' podcast The Sell More Books Show, one of the hosts suggested a good way to get readers was to donate books to libraries. This advice I followed, donating copies of the first edition of Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire and later The Thing In The Woods to the Cobb County library system, the library system I grew up using.
When I started seriously self-publishing, however, I took that strategy into overdrive. Here's a running list of the library systems that have my books.
Georgia
Cobb County: Like I mentioned earlier, a copy of Thing and two copies of FSFF, both at the central library in Marietta. I recently donated an additional copy of Thing, two copies of its sequel The Atlanta Incursion, and two copies of Battle for the Wastelands. Those have not yet been catalogued, but I will check again and update this post as needed.
Gwinnett County: The Gwinnett County library system has got two copies each of Thing and its sequel The Atlanta Incursion, which so far comprise my Lovecraft-inspired "Long War" fictional universe. Both copies of TAI are kept at the headquarters location, but one copy of Thing is at the headquarters and another is at the Suwanee branch. I'd donated one copy each already, but I saw on the website an absolutely absurd amount of holds for TAI--at one point I think as many as eight people were in line for it--and a significant number for Thing too. In early October I donated an additional copy each of Thing and TAI and they were logged in the system within a few days. As of November 9, 2020 there are four holds on two copies of TAI and zero holds on two copies of Thing. I'm not sure why I'm so popular in Gwinnett, but maybe I'll donate more if the backlog continues.
And the Long War series isn't the only thing I've got in Gwinnett. There's also a copy of Battle for the Wastelands at the Five Forks branch. That one is available now, so there probably isn't nearly so much demand. I also donated a copy of Little People, Big Guns and that's available at the Collins Hill branch. That's under "Matthew Quinn" rather than "Matthew W. Quinn," so it doesn't show up in the same author search. The library also has "Son of Grendel" at its Collins Hill branch, so the system has all of the Wastelands series so far. It also has my short story collection Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire at its Lawrenceville branch.
(And perhaps when the pandemic eases enough people are comfortable with live events, maybe I'll see if a Gwinnett library is willing to host one.)
PINES: This statewide library network serves most counties in Georgia and I made ample use of it when I lived in Lovejoy and McDonough. I donated a Thing copy to the Griffin-Spalding County Library in Griffin when I was selling books at the town's Mistletoe Market some years ago. That copy is still there, while a copy one of the library staff purchased at the Next Chapter Con North Georgia independent authors event the year before last is at the Dalton-Whitfield Library in Dalton. More recently, I was interviewed in the Dalton newspaper and donated several of my books to the Dalton-Whitfield and Calhoun-Gordon libraries and the Athens-Clarke librarians bought a copy each of Thing and TAI at an event I did earlier in 2022. PINES now has three copies of Thing, three copies of TAI, one copy of Battle, one copy of "Son of Grendel," and one copy of Little People. People from all over Georgia can read them now. :)
DeKalb County: The DeKalb County library system has got three copies of Battle, one at the Dunwoody branch, one at the Decatur branch, and one at the Tucker branch. It also has a copy each of Thing at the Tucker branch and the Decatur branch and TAI at the Tucker and Decatur branches as well. At the 2019 Decatur Book Festival I checked with library staff and the copy of Thing at the Decatur branch had been checked out three times, something I rather liked. Little People, Big Guns has a copy each at the Decatur and Stonecrest branches.
Fulton County: The Fulton County library system has got two copies of Thing, one at the Peachtree library in Midtown and the other at the Wolf Creek library in the southern part of the county. The library also has a single copy of Battle for the Wastelands and Little People Big Guns, both at its central library in downtown Atlanta.
Kentucky
Carter County: Two members of a conservative-leaning writers group I'm in organized a book drive for the Carter County public library system after reading in another Facebook group that the library system is in severe need of books--they had only eight science fiction and fantasy books in the whole library system, for example. I donated single copies of Thing, TAI, Battle, SOG, HFQ, FSFF, and LPBG over the summer of 2021 and they have since been catalogued. The Carter County libraries are located in the towns of Olive Hill and Grayson.
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